My Time at Sandrock [Multiplayer Review]
I am here once again to talk about a game that has quickly risen to the ranks as one of my favorite farming titles, My Time at Sandrock! I’ve reviewed Sandrock before, including the base game and its new Monster Whisperer DLC, but this is my first time experiencing the game’s multiplayer feature. Like always, this game has not disappointed me! I have already enjoyed quite a few hours of this game with my friends.
The multiplayer is surprisingly different from the single-player experience for starters, the story is slightly different, including why your character is coming to the town of Sandrock. This doesn’t affect how the townspeople interact with you, and you can still become or enter relationships with the townspeople. Though, with how much there is to do there might not be time for any of that just yet. The multiplayer version of the game has much more to do than the single player. There are plenty of missions set up throughout the desert that you can accept to increase your server’s reputation.
Alongside a player level, the multiplayer also includes a level for your server. You can increase this level simply by playing the game and cleaning up the town. The most effective way is to do missions, which are much more nuanced than single-player missions. In multiplayer, you can complete clean-up missions throughout the town, like destroying rubble and building up support once the area is clear. This will raise your reputation and give you experience for your character and group.
I was able to get an entire team of four, so we unintentionally split our jobs. I spent most of my time farming resources to make whatever was needed for any given mission. At the same time, everyone else dedicated their time to different tasks, like building up our house so we wouldn’t have to sleep in the rain. Unlike in the single player where you are given a starter house to build up, the multiplayer starts you with a barren land aside from a workbench and water storage. So, someone needed to spend some time to make sure we all had a home. While we made sure the home was supplied with resources and a house, the others would go on shorter missions that asked to defeat a certain number of enemies or a boss version of an enemy. This raised our rank quickly, which allowed us to progress further into the game.
There are quite a few quality-of-life features that make multiplayer easy and painless. You all share knowledge, so when discovering a new plant or monster, everyone learns of it. You also share recipes regardless of who is the one to learn/buy them. I’ve played plenty of games where simple oversights like not letting players share ruin a multiplayer experience before. It’s very refreshing to see Sandrock not make these mistakes and even add more to make the experience more enjoyable and slightly easier. How there are many chests around the world to find, usually filled with useful things like stronger weapons or clothing. The weather seems to change more often as well. I experienced much more rainfall than I did in my single-player game, which made getting water less stressful. My personal favorite feature is the introduction to Milestones that you can complete by yourself or with your team. They are very similar to the Tom Nook Miles from Animal Crossing. In Sandrock, these milestones are a nice way to gather money and experience, and most of the time you will complete them by simply playing the game and messing around.
The only slightly irritating multiplayer feature is that you cannot share chests with the other players. While it is nice to have a way to lock people from taking your more valuable stuff, it makes it more difficult to have an organized inventory and still share all your materials. Keep in mind that the game is server-based, so you don’t need a host to jump on and play. The locked chests can stop a player who’s joining by himself from making items if your materials are locked away. Thankfully, you start with a multiplayer chest that is shared between every member. This chest can be upgraded to hold more items as well. If you plan on getting on the game without your other server members I recommend making sure the communal chest has whatever is needed for alone play.
My Time at Sandrock has once again exceeded my expectations and is just as enjoyable as when I first played (even more so now that I get to experience it with others!). Before, I had scored this game a 7, but after playing it much more and with other people, I’m raising my score to a 10/10! This game just became even more enjoyable when playing with my friends. My Time at Sandrock is now available for purchase on Steam, Xbox One and Series (And available on game pass now), PlayStation 5, and Switch.